In some data storage systems, modifying a small amount of data on a storage media entails a re-write of additional unmodified data. For example, a hard drive assembly may write data to a magnetic media in units of sectors that are larger than data blocks received from a host device. As a result, recording an individual data block received from a host may entail a re-write of an entire sector on the magnetic media. Similarly, shingled magnetic recording (SMR) systems typically re-write a group of data tracks whenever one or more data cells within the group are changed. In these types of systems, a write operation interrupted by a power failure can result in corrupted or unrecoverable data.